Horseracing – A Sport to Die For?

As part of NYSHA’s efforts to focus attention on the cruelties involved in horse racing, we are listing the 99 known horse deaths on NY tracks in 2014.

Sadly, all these animals died for the sake of providing gambling and entertainment to the public.

Many of the dead were young horses who should not have been running at all; others were older animals who simply could not survive the treatment they were receiving at the hands of trainers and jockeys. All of them were subjected to the needless suffering that is inherent in racing.

Horse down and injured on race track.

This following list includes on-site deaths only. What the industry refers to as “non-racing” fatalities — colic, laminitis, “found dead in stall” — have not been included. And, of course, this list says nothing of the “athletes” who were bled-out and butchered in foreign abattoirs after they were no longer profitable to keep. Maiming and destruction are but a part of the story. There are also the routine cruelties these animals endure: the damage done to young, underdeveloped bodies and legs from the relentless pounding of hooves on hard surfaces; the extreme confinement of naturally free-roaming animals; the painful whipping; the drugging and doping; and perhaps worst of all, turning them into commodities to be bought and sold, traded and dumped, as though they were used cars. These endless cruelties inflicted on such magnificent creatures who played a key role in building our country, transporting our people across the land, and winning our wars, need to stop and they need to stop now.Where known, the list specifies the age, name, date of death, track and race — of each horse who pointlessly died.